Make a Fairy House

I’l admit, I don’t really know too much about fairy houses. Yes, I have four kids, but three of them are boys. My daughter and I seemed to learn about fairy houses far too late for her to be able to get “into them” like some little girls do. And yeah, the boys didn’t really have an interest, no surprise! I still don’t know a lot about fairy houses other than they are constructed mostly from things found in the woods and are often surrounded by pretty flowers. So when I created my fairy house, these were the aspects I built into it.

I used a $1.00 wooden bird house from the craft store. I dug around in my craft room and found some moss, pine cones and acorns. I had a lot of fun creating the flowers since they are just simply dots with the handle end of a paintbrush.

I took several shots close up so you can see some of the details…

As you can see from this shot in the tree, it’s not very big, maybe 7-inches in height. I created this for DecoArt, so I did have to ship it off to them. I would have loved to have nestled this among my herbs, so I’m tempted to make another one just for me. :)

click picture for larger view

I started by cutting the scales from 3 medium sized pine cones. I painted the birdhouse with Woodland Brown paint. I glued moss to the outside of the house, leaving some space around the window for my flowers. I began constructing the roof tiles using the scales of the pine cone.

click picture for larger view

I started at the bottom and worked my way up, adding an acorn top to the top of the roof. To build the base I used some wood discs my neighbor had cut for me when I made these Rustic Northwoods Christmas Ornaments a few years ago. See? it pays to save stuff! After gluing the discs together I added some pebbles to the ends. I glued the house to the base and painted some green for grass then started adding flowers with different colors. I just kept adding until I was happy with how it looked :)

Cover a section of the painted birdhouse with E6000 glue and press moss into the glue, repeating until the outside of the house is covered, leaving space around the window.

Glue the scales onto the roof, starting with a row around the bottom and working your way up to the top. Glue the acorn top to the top of the roof.

Make a base from sliced wood circles by gluing them together and adding some pebbles and stones around the outer edges.

Glue the house to the base.

Using a toothpick, dip into paint and dot on to create flowers around the window. Simply dot two or three next to each other then work upwards, lessening the number of dots across as you go up to give them the appearance of growing. We used Cloud White, Coral Sunset, and Robin’s Egg Blue for the front flowers. We used Sweet Pea for the greenery around the edges and Marigold for the flowers around the outer edge of the window. In our “window box”, the flower spilling out the window, we used Petunia Purple dotted lightly with Cloud White.

Use a scruffy paintbrush to add Sprout Green paint to the front of the wood circles, then dot on flower gardens with toothpick using Very Berry and Petunia Purple dotted with Cloud White in the front, and Marigold, Butternut and Coral Sunset for the flowers in the back and on the pebbles.

Mix Wrought Iron Black with some Cloud White to create a gray shade. Use the handle end of a paintbrush dipped in gray to create stepping stones in front of the house.

Dot the roof with some white craft glue using your finger. Sprinkle with white glitter.

Thank you for the wonderful ideas. I love this! 8 little girls will be making their own versions of this at my daughter’s 5th birthday party this week! (Okay, I’m making one, too, for our fairy garden.) Thanks!

Love this adorable fairy house.
I too, plan on making one.
Have pine cones on order.
Looked, but so far have no circles of wood-have to wait until
son cuts down tree.
I have made several already from bird houses.
Will have to take pictures.
Not too tech savvy.
Have some of this paint.
I also have bought a small wood barn, chicken coop, small resin houses,
fairies, accessories galore.
Love the miniature ceramic animals you can buy online.
So are making dish gardens, dioramas.
Made a larger one out of an aquatic log that will go outside in flower box this summer. It has Peter pan, Tinkerbelle, and baby.

Thank you, Amanda, for the great tutorial. I can’t wait to collect the materials and my granddaughters and start making a beautiful little neighborhood for those elusive little fairies.
You are so talented! Thank you for sharing this wonderful project!

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Amanda Formaro is the creative mind behind hundreds of kid's crafts and adult home decor projects, all of which she shares on this blog and elsewhere throughout the online and print world. Learn more here...

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Amanda is a well-known craft expert and craft book author. She loves to create on a daily basis. Find out more here..

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